Training young people: complexity, demand and responsibility

Abstract

This bibliographic study aimed at analyzing the role of the coach concerning the sportive education process of young people. Initially, the responsibilities of the coach who trains young people were evidenced by a survey on the main functions: the practitioner personal development, development of the sportive qualities and the elaboration of the fundaments of a long sportive career. In this process, the main reasons for the prolonged development of the sportive practice and the disregard of the sportive practice by the young people are discussed. To conclude, the text makes the role of the coach as a manager of the activity evident, the person who needs to search the equilibrium between the practitioner’s intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Therefore, we can conclude: training young people emphasizes the transcendent characteristics of the role of the coach during the first stages of the practitioner’s career, period when the functions are complex, demanding and require responsibility. In this sense, the work concerning this period of age can not be understood as the first stage of the coach’s career, but expert coaches must act as tutors, since this phase demands specific competencies that must be carefully acquired and examined by a reflective experience in a continuous process of education.